Samsung, Visa in pay-by-bonk tie up

Mastercard responds with rebadged PayPass

Samsung and Visa have inked an agreement to pre-load the card giant’s payWave application on selected Samsung devices, with the upcoming Galaxy S4 slated to be the first built-in pay-by-bonk Visa device.

The deal would enable NFC-based mobile payments without involvement from carriers. Instead, the Visa provisioning service will be linked to Samsung’s key management system to download account information over-the-air to the app.

Carriers’ enthusiasm about being cut out of the equation is exemplified by Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao, whom Bloombergquotes as saying: “At least now, if I don’t charge my phone, I can still go home”.

Out of the NFC world, Mastercard – also at Barcelona – announced that Australia will be the first test market for MasterPass, the rebadged PayPass PayPal-killer-that-didn’t. The credit card company hopes its MasterPass icon will supplant PayPal on retail sites; like PayPal, it would let consumers shop without repeatedly keying-in their credit card details.

To broaden the service, MasterPass will accept registration of non-Mastercards, including Visa and Amex. According to The Australian, NAB, the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and Me Bank have signed up for the service, along with retailers such as Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, and Roses Only. Payment gateways Paycorp and Merchant Warrior are also on board. ®